Information
School of Information
Office: 102 South Hall, (510) 642-1464
Dean: AnnaLee Saxenian, PhD
School Website: School of Information
Overview
The School of Information (I School) was created in 1994 to address one of society’s most compelling challenges: the need to organize and make sense of the abundance of information that we can now collect, store, and share without regard for cost or distance. The way we organize, represent, govern, and make sense of this information will shape our ability to achieve public as well as private goals.
The I School educates professionals and scholars to understand the problems and possibilities of information, to develop models of information practice, and to design useful and usable information applications, services, and solutions. This requires insights from diverse fields. Our faculty includes scholars and professionals with deep expertise in information and computer science, social sciences, management, law, design, and policy, as well as related fields.
We offer two professional master’s degrees and an academic doctoral degree. The Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) degree trains students for careers as information professionals and emphasizes small classes and project-based learning. The Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS) degree is an online program training data science professionals. The PhD program equips scholars to contribute to knowledge and to the policies that influence the organization, use, and sharing of information.
Master of Information Management and Systems
The Master of Information Management and Systems (MIMS) program is a two-year full time program, designed to train students in the skills needed to succeed as information professionals. Such professionals must be familiar with the theory and practice of storing, organizing, retrieving and analyzing information in a variety of settings in business, the public sector, and the academic world. Technical expertise alone is not sufficient for success; I School graduates will be expected to perform and manage a multiplicity of information related tasks.
Graduates of the MIMS program will be able to:
- Identify and address user and stakeholder information and resource needs in context.
- Make and assess information design decisions iteratively.
- Intentionally organize collections of information and other resources to support human and/or machine-based interactions and services.
- Understand and apply foundational principles and debates of information law, policy, and ethics.
- Analyze complex relationships and practical choices at the intersection of technical design, policy frameworks, and ethics.
- Understand and apply fundamental principles and debates of information economics.
- Understand and apply architectural, computational, and algorithmic thinking and principles of concurrency to the design of information systems.
- Scope, plan and manage open-ended projects, both individually and in teams.
- Present findings and conclusions persuasively.
Such a profession is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring aspects of computer science, cognitive science, psychology and sociology, economics, business, law, library/information studies, and communications.
For information regarding degree requirements, please see the School of Information website .
Master of Information and Data Science
The Master of Information and Data Science (MIDS) program is a part-time, fully online program that trains data-savvy professionals and managers. The MIDS program is designed to train leaders in the growing field of data science.
The program focuses on problem solving, preparing students to creatively apply methods of data collection, analysis, and presentation to solve the world’s most challenging problems. Students will bring together a range of methods to define a research question; to gather, store, retrieve, and analyze data; to interpret results; and to convey findings effectively. Using the latest tools and practices, students will identify patterns in and gain insights from complex data sets.
Working with data at scale requires distinctive new skills and tools. The MIDS program is distinguished by its disciplinary breadth; unlike other programs that focus on advanced mathematics and modeling alone, the MIDS degree provides students insights from social science and policy research, as well as statistics, computer science and engineering.
For information regarding degree requirements, please see the program's website .
PhD Program
The doctoral program is a research-oriented program in which the student chooses specific fields of specialization, prepares sufficiently in the literature and the research of those fields to pass a qualifying examination, and completes original research culminating in the written dissertation. The degree of Doctor of Philosophy is conferred in recognition of a candidate's grasp of a broad field of learning and distinguished accomplishment in that field through contribution of an original piece of research revealing high critical ability and powers of imagination and synthesis.
For information regarding degree requirements, please see School of Information website .
INFO W10 Introduction to Information 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Web-based lecture and 1 hour of Web-based discussion per week for 15 weeks. This is an online course.
This lower-division survey course will provide an introduction to the study of information, an interdisciplinary science that draws on aspects of computer science, sociology, economics, business, law, library studies, cognitive science, psychology, and communication. The course is organized into modules that may cover topics such as social bookmarking, networks and web security, human-computer interaction, interface design, technology and poverty, law and policy, business models and entrepreneurship.
Instructor: Carver
INFO 90 Programming for Computing Applications 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Restricted to Information Management and Systems students only.
An introduction to high-level computer programming languages covering their basis in mathematics and logic. This course will guide students through the elements that compose any programming language including expressions, control of flow, data structures, and modularity via functions and/or objects. Covers traditional contemporary programming paradigms including sequential, event-based, and object-oriented programming; multi-person programming projects and debugging strategies.
INFO 98 Directed Group Study for Lower Division Undergraduates 1 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hour of Directed group study per week for 15 weeks.
Lectures and small group discussions focusing on topics of interest, varying from semester to semester.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO C103/COG SCI C103/HISTORY C192/MEDIAST C104C History of Information 3 Units
Department: Information Management and Systems; Cognitive Science; History; Media Studies
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Upper level undergraduates.
This course explores the history of information and associated technologies, uncovering why we think of ours as "the information age." We will select moments in the evolution of production, recording, and storage from the earliest writing systems to the world of Short Message Service (SMS) and blogs. In every instance, we'll be concerned with both what and when and how and why, and we will keep returning to the question of technological determinism: how do technological developments affect society and vice versa?
Formerly known as Information Systems and Management C103. Instructors: Duguid, Nunberg
INFO 114 User Experience Research 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.
Methods and concepts of creating design requirements and evaluating prototypes and existing systems. Emphasis on computer-based systems, including mobile system and ubiquitous computing, but may be suitable for students interested in other domains of design for end-users. Includes quantitative and qualitative methods as applied to design, usually for short-term term studies intended to provide guidance for designers.
Students will receive no credit for 114 after taking 214.
INFO 141 Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business 2 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Discussion per week for 15 weeks.
In this course, students will first gain an understanding of the basics of how search engines work, and then explore how search engine design impacts business and culture. Topics include search advertising and auctions, search and privacy, search ranking, internationalization, anti-spam efforts, local search, peer-to-peer search, and search of blogs and online communities. Open to all undergraduate students and designed for those with little technical background.
INFO 146 Foundations of New Media 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: No prior New Media production experience required.
Introduction to interdisciplinary study and design of New Media. Survey of theoretical and practical foundations of New Media including theory and history; analysis and reception; computational foundations; social implications; interaction, visual, physical, and narrative design. Instruction combines lectures and project-based learning using case studies from everyday technology (e.g., telephone, camera, web).
INFO 152 Mobile Application Design and Development 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Lecture per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Introductory programming experience.
This course looks at the quickly developing landscape of mobile applications. It focuses on Web-based mobile applications, and thus covers issues of Web service design (RESTful service design), mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, Symbian/S60, WebOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS, BREW, JavaME/JavaFX, Flash Light), and the specific constraints and requirements of user interface design for limited devices. The course combines a conceptual overview, design issues, and practical development issues.
INFO 153 Web Architecture and Information Management 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Laboratory per week for 15 weeks. 5 hours of Lecture and 2.5 hours of Laboratory per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: Introductory programming experience.
This course focuses on understanding the Web as an information system, and how to use it for information management for personal and shared information. The Web is an open and constantly evolving system which can make it hard to understand how the different parts of the landscape fit together. This course provides students with an overview of the Web as a whole, and how the individual parts fit together. It provides students with the understanding and skills to better navigate and use the landscape of Web information.
Students will receive no credit for 153 after taking 190 section 02 (Spring 2009 or Spring 2010).
INFO 155 Introduction to High-Level Programming 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Laboratory per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Lecture and 2.5 hours of Laboratory per week for 6 weeks.
An introduction to high-level computer programming languages with emphasis on strings, modules, functions and objects; sequential and event-based programming. Uses the PYTHON language.
INFO 181 Technology and Poverty 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 2 and 1 half hours of lecture per week.
This course will encourage students to think broadly about the interplay between technological systems, social processes, economic activities, and political contingencies in efforts to alleviate poverty. Students will come to understand poverty not only in terms of high-level indicators, but from a ground-level perspective as 'the poor' experience and describe it for themselves. The role played by individuals and societies of the developing world as active agents in processes of technology adoption and use will be a central theme.
Students will receive no credit for 181 after taking 190-01 Technology and Poverty. Instructor: Burrell
INFO 190 Special Topics in Information 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
A seminar focusing on topics of current interest. Topics will vary. A seminar paper will be required. Open to students from other departments.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 198 Directed Group Study for Advanced Undergraduates 1 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hours of lecture per week. Meetings to be arranged.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Formerly known as Information Systems and Management 198.
INFO 199 Individual Study 1 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Undergraduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for pass/not pass grade only.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hour of Independent study per week for 15 weeks.
Individual study of topics in information management and systems under faculty supervision.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Enrollment is restricted; see the Introduction to Courses and Curricula section of this catalog.
INFO 202 Information Organization and Retrieval 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Organization, representation, and access to information. Categorization, indexing, and content analysis. Data structures. Design and maintenance of databases, indexes, classification schemes, and thesauri. Use of codes, formats, and standards. Analysis and evaluation of search and navigation techniques.
INFO 203 Social and Organizational Issues of Information 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor required for non-majors.
The relationship between information and information systems, technology, practices, and artifacts on how people organize their work, interact, and understand experience. Individual, group, organizational, and societal issues in information production and use, information systems design and management, and information and communication technologies. Social science research methods for understanding information issues.
INFO 205 Information Law and Policy 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor required for nonmajors.
Law is one of a number of policies that mediates the tension between free flow and restrictions on the flow of information. This course introduces students to copyright and other forms of legal protection for databases, licensing of information, consumer protection, liability for insecure systems and defective information, privacy, and national and international information policy.
Instructor: Mulligan
INFO 206 Distributed Computing Applications and Infrastructure 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Laboratory per week for 15 weeks. 7.5 hours of Lecture and 2.5 hours of Laboratory per week for 6 weeks.
Prerequisites: An introductory programming course and consent of instructor for nonmajors.
Technological foundations for computing and communications: computer architecture, operating systems, networking, middleware, security. Programming paradigms: object oriented-design, design and analysis of algorithms, data structures, formal languages. Distributed-system architectures and models, inter-process communications, concurrency, system performance.
Course must be completed for a letter grade to fulfill degree requirements. Instructor: Chuang
INFO 209 Professional Skills Workshop 2 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 202, 203, or consent of instructor.
As information and information systems projects have become increasingly strategic, information workers at all levels and in all environments must demonstrate higher levels of professionalism, not only to perform their duties competently, but to remain competitive in the job market. This course, in conjunction with the School of Information final project, gives students insight into the source and best practice of professionalism, and gives students the chance to refine the essential skills in a simulated but realistic working environment.
INFO 212 Information in Society 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
The role of information and information technology in organizations and society. Topics include societal needs and demands, sociology of knowledge and science, diffusion of knowledge and technology, information seeking and use, information and culture, and technology and culture.
INFO 213 User Interface Design and Development 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
User interface design and human-computer interaction. Examination of alternative design. Tools and methods for design and development. Human computer interaction. Methods for measuring and evaluating interface quality.
INFO 214 Needs and Usability Assessment 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Concepts and methods of needs and usability assessment. Understanding users' needs and practices and translating them into design decisions. Topics include methods of identifying and describing user needs and requirements; user-centered design; user and task analysis; contextual design; heuristic evaluation; surveys, interviews, and focus groups; usability testing; naturalistic/ethnographic methods; managing usability in organizations; and universal usability.
INFO 216 Computer-Mediated Communication 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
This course covers the practical and theoretical issues associated with computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems (e.g., email, newsgroups, wikis, online games, etc.). We will focus on the analysis of CMC practices, the relationship between technology and behavior, and the design and implementation issues associated with constructing CMC systems. This course primarily takes a social scientific approach (including research from social psychology, economics, sociology, and communication).
Instructor: Cheshire
INFO 218 Concepts of Information 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing.
As it's generally used, "information" is a collection of notions, rather than a single coherent concept. In this course, we'll examine conceptions of information based in information theory, philosophy, social science, economics, and history. Issues include: How compatible are these conceptions; can we talk about "information" in the abstract? What work do these various notions play in discussions of literacy, intellectual property, advertising, and the political process? And where does this leave "information studies" and "the information society"?
Instructors: Duguid, Nunberg
INFO 219 Privacy, Security, and Cryptography 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 206 or consent of instructor.
Policy and technical issues related to insuring the accuracy and privacy of information. Encoding and decoding techniques including public and private key encryption. Survey of security problems in networked information environment including viruses, worms, trojan horses, Internet address spoofing.
Instructor: Tygar
INFO 221 Information Policy 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
An examination of the nature of corporate, nonprofit, and governmental information policy. The appropriate role of the government in production and dissemination of information, the tension between privacy and freedom of access to information. Issues of potential conflicts in values and priorities in information policy.
INFO 225 Managing in Information-Intensive Companies 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
This course focuses on managing people in information-intensive firms and industries, such as information technology industries. Topics include managing knowledge workers; managing teams (including virtual ones); collaborating across disparate units, giving and receiving feedback; managing the innovation process (including in eco-systems); managing through networks; and managing when using communication tools (e.g., tele-presence). The course relies heavily on cases as a pedagogical form.
Students will receive no credit for 225 after taking 290, Section 1 (Spring 2009) or Section 6 (Fall 2009). Instructor: Hansen
INFO 228 Information Systems and Service Design 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Using a mix of theory and case studies, the course provides students with different backgrounds a unifying view of the design life cycle, making them more effective and versatile designers.
Students will receive no credit for 228 after taking 290 section 1 Fall 2008 or Fall 2009. Instructor: Glushko
INFO 231 Economics of Information 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
The measurement and analysis of the role information plays in the economy and of the resources devoted to production, distribution, and consumption of information. Economic analysis of the information industry. Macroeconomics of information.
INFO 232 Applied Behavioral Economics for Information Systems 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of lecture per week.
"Behavioral Economics" is one important perspective on how information impacts human behavior. The goal of this class is to deploy a few important theories about the relationship between information and behavior, into practical settings — emphasizing the design of experiments that can now be incorporated into many 'applications' in day-to-day life. Truly 'smart systems' will have built into them precise, testable propositions about how human behavior can be modified by what the systems tell us and do for us. So let's design these experiments into our systems from the ground up! This class develops a theoretically informed, practical point of view on how to do that more effectively and with greater impact.
Students will receive no credit for Information 232 after completing Information 290 sect 6 (Fall 13). Instructor: Weber
INFO 234 Information Technology Economics, Strategy, and Policy 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of lecture per week.
Application of economic tools and principles, including game theory, industrial organization, information economics, and behavioral economics, to analyze business strategies and public policy issues surrounding information technologies and IT industries. Topics include: economics of information; economics of information goods, services, and platforms; strategic pricing; strategic complements and substitutes; competition models; network industry structure and telecommunications regulation; search and the "long tail"; network cascades and social epidemics; network formation and network structure; peer production and crowdsourcing; interdependent security and privacy.
Course Objectives:
INFO234 is a graduate level course in the school's topical area of Information Economics and Policy, and can be taken by the masters and doctoral students to satisfy their respective degree requirements.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students will learn to identify, describe, and analyze business strategies and public policy issues of particular relevance to the information industry. Students will learn and apply economic tools and principles to analyze phenomena such as platform competition, social epidemics, and peer production, and current policy issues such as network neutrality and information privacy. Through integrated assignments and project work, the students will apply the theoretical concepts and analytic tools learned in lectures and readings to develop and evaluate a business model, product, or service of their choosing, e.g., a start-up idea they are pursuing.
Instructor: Chuang
INFO 235 Cyberlaw 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Introduction to legal issues in information management, antitrust, contract management, international law including intellectual property, trans-border data flow, privacy, libel, and constitutional rights.
Instructor: Carver
INFO 237 Intellectual Property Law for the Information Industries 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 205 or consent of instructor.
The philosophical, legal, historical, and economic analysis of the need for and uses of laws protecting intellectual property. Topics include types of intellectual property (copyright, patent, trade secrecy), the interaction between law and technology, various approaches (including compulsory licensing), and the relationship between intellectual property and compatibility standards.
Instructor: Carver
INFO 240 Principles of Information Retrieval 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 202 or consent of instructor.
Theories and methods for searching and retrieval of text and bibliographic information. Analysis of relevance, utility. Statistical and linguistic methods for automatic indexing and classification. Boolean and probabilistic approaches to indexing, query formulation, and output ranking. Filtering methods. Measures of retrieval effectiveness and retrieval experimentation methodology.
Instructor: Larson
INFO 242 XML Foundations 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
The Extensible Markup Language (XML), with its ability to define formal structural and semantic definitions for metadata and information models, is the key enabling technology for information services and document-centric business models that use the Internet and its family of protocols. This course introduces XML syntax, transformations, schema languages and the querying of XML databases. It balances conceptual topics with practical skills for designing, implementing, and handling conceptual models as XML schemas.
INFO 245 Organization of Information in Collections 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 202 or consent of instructor.
Standards and practices for organization and description of bibliographic, textual, and non-textual collections. Design, selection, maintenance, and evaluation of cataloging, classification, indexing, and thesaurus systems for specific settings. Codes, formats, and standards for representation and transfer of data.
Instructor: Larson
INFO 246 Multimedia Information 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 202, 203, or consent of instructor.
Concepts and methods of design, management, creation, and evaluation of multimedia information systems. Theory and practice of digital media production, reception, organization, retrieval, and reuse. Review of applicable digital technology with special emphasis on digital video. Course will involve group projects in the design and development of digital media systems and applications.
INFO 247 Information Visualization and Presentation 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Information 206, Computer Science 160, or knowledge of programming and data structures with consent of instructor.
The design and presentation of digital information. Use of graphics, animation, sound, visualization software, and hypermedia in presenting information to the user. Methods of presenting complex information to enhance comprehension and analysis. Incorporation of visualization techniques into human-computer interfaces.
Instructor: Hearst
INFO 250 Computer-Based Communications Systems and Networks 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 206 or equivalent.
Communications concepts, network architectures, data communication software and hardware, networks (e.g., LAN, wide), network protocols (e.g., TCP/IP), network management, distributed information systems. Policy and management implications of the technology.
Instructor: Chuang
INFO 252 Mobile Application Design and Development 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: 206 or consent of instructor.
This course looks at the quickly developing landscape of mobile applications. It focuses on Web-based mobile applications, and thus covers issues of Web service design (RESTful service design), mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, Symbian/S60, WebOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry OS, BREW, JavaME/JavaFX, Flash Light), and the specific constraints and requirements of user interface design for limited devices. The course combines a conceptual overview, design issues, and practical development issues.
Students will receive no credit for 252 after taking 152 in spring 2010.
INFO 253 Web Architecture 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Introductory programming.
This course is a survey of Web technologies, ranging from the basic technologies underlying the Web (URI, HTTP, HTML) to more advanced technologies being used in the the context of Web engineering--for example, structured data formats and Web programming frameworks. The goal of this course is to provide an overview of the technical issues surrounding the Web today, and to provide a solid and comprehensive perspective of the Web's constantly evolving landscape.
Students will receive no credit for 253 after taking 290 section 2 (fall 2009, 2010) or 290 section 3 (fall 2008).
INFO 256 Applied Natural Language Processing 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Proficient programming in python (programs of at least 200 lines of code), proficient with basic statistics and probabilities.
This course examines the state-of-the-art in applied Natural Language Processing (also known as content analysis and language engineering), with an emphasis on how well existing algorithms perform and how they can be used (or not) in applications. Topics include part-of-speech tagging, shallow parsing, text classification, information extraction, incorporation of lexicons and ontologies into text analysis, and question answering. Students will apply and extend existing software tools to text-processing problems.
Instructor: Hearst
INFO 257 Database Management 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Introduction to relational, hierarchical, network, and object-oriented database management systems. Database design concepts, query languages for database applications (such as SQL), concurrency control, recovery techniques, database security. Issues in the management of databases. Use of report writers, application generators, high-level interface generators.
Instructor: Larson
INFO C262/NWMEDIA C262 Theory and Practice of Tangible User Interfaces 4 Units
Department: Information Management and Systems; New Media
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture and 1 hour of Laboratory per week for 15 weeks.
This course explores the theory and practice of Tangible User Interfaces, a new approach to Human Computer Interaction that focuses on the physical interaction with computational media. The topics covered in the course include theoretical framework, design examples, enabling technologies, and evaluation of Tangible User Interfaces. Students will design and develop experimental Tangible User Interfaces using physical computing prototyping tools and write a final project report.
Instructor: Ryokai
INFO C263/NWMEDIA C263 Technologies for Creativity and Learning 3 Units
Department: Information Management and Systems; New Media
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
How does the design of new educational technology change the way people learn and think? How do we design systems that reflect our understanding of how we learn? This course explores issues on designing and evaluating technologies that support creativity and learning. The class will cover theories of creativity and learning, implications for design, as well as a survey of new educational technologies such as works in computer supported collaborative learning, digital manipulatives, and immersive learning environments.
Students will receive no credit for Information C263/New Media C263 after taking Information 290/New Media 290 section 2 spring 12 only. Instructor: Ryokai
INFO C265/NWMEDIA C265 Interface Aesthetics 2 Units
Department: Information Management and Systems; New Media
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
This course will cover new interface metaphors beyond desktops (e.g., for mobile devices, computationally enhanced environments, tangible user interfaces) but will also cover visual design basics (e.g., color, layout, typography, iconography) so that we have systematic and critical understanding of aesthetically engaging interfaces. Students will get a hands-on learning experience on these topics through course projects, design critiques, and discussions, in addition to lectures and readings.
Instructor: Ryokai
INFO 271B Quantitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Introductory statistics recommended.
Introduction to many different types of quantitative research methods, with an emphasis on linking quantitative statistical techniques to real-world research methods. Introductory and intermediate topics include: defining research problems, theory testing, casual inference, probability, and univariate statistics. Research design and methodology topics include: primary/secondary survey data analysis, experimental designs, and coding qualitative data for quantitative analysis.
Instructor: Cheshire
INFO 272 Qualitative Research Methods for Information Systems and Management 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Theory and practice of naturalistic inquiry. Grounded theory. Ethnographic methods including interviews, focus groups, naturalistic observation. Case studies. Analysis of qualitative data. Issues of validity and generalizability in qualitative research.
Instructor: Burrell
INFO C283/ENE,RES C283 Information and Communications Technology for Development 3 Units
Department: Information Management and Systems; Energy and Resources Group
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.
This seminar reviews current literature and debates regarding Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD). This is an interdisciplinary and practice-oriented field that draws on insights from economics, sociology, engineering, computer science, management, public health, etc.
Instructors: Ray, Saxenian
INFO 287 Information and Communications Technologies for Social Enterprise 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
This class is focused on the creation of sustainable enterprises based on ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) innovations supporting international development. We take a broad view of entrepreneurship--including starting new businesses, non-profit initiatives, and/or public sector projects. We will take a highly iterative, design-oriented, feedback-driven approach to developing and refining business plans for social enterprises.
Students will receive no credit for 287 after taking 290 section 7 (Fall 2009 or Fall 2010). Instructor: Parikh
INFO 290 Special Topics in Information 1 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 to 6 hours of lecture per week for 7.5 weeks or 1 to 4 hours of lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Specific topics, hours, and credit may vary from section to section, year to year.
Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 290A Special Topics in Information 1 or 2 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 1.5 to 2 hours of lecture per week for 8 weeks. 2 hours of lecture per week for 6 weeks. 3 hours of lecture per week for 5 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Formerly known as Information Systems and Management 290A.
INFO 290M Special Topics in Management 1 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hours of lecture per week; 2 to 7.5 hours of lecture per week for 7 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Specific topics, hours, and credit may vary from section to section and year to year.
Course may be repeated for credit as topics in management vary. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 290MA Effective Project Management 2 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
It takes critical thinking, outstanding leadership, and a little magic to be a successful project manager. Come and learn not only the essential building blocks of project management, but the tricks to managing a variety of complex projects. We will have a combination of interactive lectures, guest speakers, and case studies discussions to cover globally recognized standards, best practices, and tools that successful project managers use.
Students will receive no credit for 290MA after taking 290 section 11 (spring 2009) or 290 section 2 (fall 2007).
INFO 290T Special Topics in Technology 1 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 1 to 4 hours of lecture per week; 2 to 6 hours of lecture per week for 7 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Specific topics, hours, and credit may vary from section to section and year to year.
Course may be repeated for credit as topics in technology vary. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 290TA Information Organization Laboratory 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 3 hours of Lecture per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: It is recommended that students take 202 concurrently, or have taken it in the past.
Students will build tools to explore and apply theories of information organization and retrieval. Students will implement various concepts covered in the concurrent 202 course through small projects on topics like controlled vocabularies, the semantic web, and corpus analysis. We will also experiment with topics suggested by students during the course. Students will develop skills in rapid prototyping of web-based projects using Python, XML, and jQuery.
Students will receive no credit for 290TA after taking 290 section 4 (fall 2009 or fall 2010).
INFO 293 Curricular Practical Training for International Students 0.0 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Hours and format: Zero hours of Independent study per week for 15 weeks. Zero hours of Independent study per week for 10 weeks.
This is a zero-unit independent study course for international students doing internships under the Curricular Practical Training program. The course will be individually supervised and must be approved by the head graduate adviser.
Course may be repeated once. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 295 Doctoral Colloquium 1 Unit
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Fall
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Hours and format: 1 hour of Colloquium per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Ph.D. standing in the School of Information.
Colloquia, discussion and readings designed to introduce students to the range of interests of the school.
INFO 296A Seminar 2 - 4 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 to 4 hours of Seminar per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Topics in information management and systems and related fields. Specific topics vary from year to year.
Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 298 Directed Group Study 1 - 3 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: Weekly group meetings.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Group projects on special topics in information management and systems.
Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 298A Directed Group Work on Final Project 2 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Term course may be offered: Spring
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: 2 hours of Directed group study per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor. Course must be taken for a letter grade to fulfill degree requirements.
The final project is designed to integrate the skills and concepts learned during the Information School Master's program and helps prepare students to compete in the job market. It provides experience in formulating and carrying out a sustained, coherent, and significant course of work resulting in a tangible work product; in project management, in presenting work in both written and oral form; and, when appropriate, in working in a multidisciplinary team. Projects may take the form of research papers or professionally-oriented applied work.
No credit will be given if 298 has been taken to fulfill final project requirement.
INFO 299 Individual Study 1 - 12 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate
Terms course may be offered: Fall, spring and summer
Grading: Letter grade.
Hours and format: Format varies.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Individual study of topics in information management and systems under faculty supervision.
Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
INFO 375 Teaching Assistance Practicum 1 - 6 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Professional course for teachers or prospective teachers
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Hours and format: 4 hours of work per week per unit.
Discussion, reading, preparation, and practical experience under faculty supervision in the teaching of specific topics within information management and systems. Does not count toward a degree.
Course may be repeated for credit as topic varies. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes. Formerly known as Information 310.
INFO 602 Individual Study for Doctoral Students 1 - 5 Units
Department: Information
Course level: Graduate examination preparation
Terms course may be offered: Fall and spring
Grading: Offered for satisfactory/unsatisfactory grade only.
Hours and format: 1 to 5 hour of Independent study per week for 15 weeks.
Prerequisites: Consent of instructor.
Individual study in consultation with the major field adviser, intended to provide an opportunity for qualified students to prepare themselves for the various examinations required of candidates for the Ph.D. degree.
Course may be repeated for credit. Course may be repeated for credit when topic changes.
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